


Hear You Me

by LastWeeksAlcohol



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Heavy Angst, Hurt, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 20:51:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14480958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LastWeeksAlcohol/pseuds/LastWeeksAlcohol
Summary: Armin had only wanted to help save his friends.





	Hear You Me

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to Hear You Me when the idea popped into my head. I suggest listening to that song while you read for maximum effect.

Armin chased after his friends as they ran to their home, trying desperately to save Carla, vowing to himself he would save her or die trying.

"Armin, go!"

"No! Not without you and Mikasa!" He struggled harder with the beam.

Hannes swung down and failed to kill the Titan, feeling fear fill him as he picked up Eren and Mikasa since they were closest.

"Armin! Come on!"

The small blond ran behind them but was too slow and felt a large hand grab him, covering most of his body in a tight grip.

"Armin!"

"Eren! Mikasa!" He struggled in the Titan's hold.

"Hannes! Save him! Please! You have to save him!"

"No! Hannes! Run faster!" Armin was still struggling. "Save Eren and Mikasa!"

"Hannes!"

"Hannes! Run! Keep going!"

Hannes just gritted his teeth and ran faster, Eren watching with wide eyes as the Titan brought his friend to its mouth and swallowed him whole.

Eren flashed back to just a few weeks ago when him and Armin were sitting by the water, side by side looking through one of Armin's books, Armin helping Eren with the bigger words. It was a fairytale with a happy ending, something that the boys were using to help Eren get better at reading.

"Hey, Armin?"

"Yeah?"

"Can boys marry boys?"

"I don't know. Grandfather told me his brother was in love with a man and they lived together until they died."

"So even if they don't get married they can live together?"

"I guess so. Why?"

"Because I want to marry you," Eren said bluntly.

"You do?"

"You don't want to get married?"

"I don't know, there's a lot I want to do," the other boy admitted. "I never really thought about marrying anyone."

"Then I have an idea!"

"What?"

"If I take you to the ocean will you marry me?"

"Okay!" Armin smiled at his friend. "If you take me to the ocean I'll marry you!"

Now it was all disappearing.

"Armin! Armin no!" Eren fought Hannes' grip on him. "Let me go! If you won't save him I will!"

"Eren stop! He's gone!"

On the boat Eren sat clutching his legs to his chest, sobbing into his knees.

"Eren..."

"H-he's the r-reaon I wanted t-t-to get out of h-here."

"I know."

Eren sobbed harder, shaking Mikasa's hand off of him, the girl taking the hint and leaving him alone, rotating between sobbing and screaming into his legs to muffle it until he exhausted himself as they reached their destination.

"Hannes was right. I wasn't strong enough to save either of them and now..." He was shaking.

"I know Eren."

"I'm going to get stronger." Eren clenched his fists.

Time crawled by for Eren, not a day passing by without him thinking of his mother and his friend that risked his life for him.

'I wonder what Armin would look like now,' Eren thought. 'I wonder if he would be proud of me for enlisting?'

The first night Eren was quiet as he ate until Connie sat across from him.

"So, you were really there?"

"Yeah."

"How could you want to join the Survey Corp after that? You're probably going to have to see all of that again."

"I joined for my best friend."

"Huh? Did he join?"

"He died when the wall fell but it was always our dream to see the outside world, he gave me that dream and showed me there's more than these walls."

Marco smiled softly. "He sounds amazing."

"He was. He was a genius too, it's actually amazing how smart he was." He smiled softly before it dropped off his face, feeling Mikasa place a hand gently on his back.

Eren still remembered the day vividly, he had been relaxing when Armin ran over, clutching a book to his chest. At that point Eren wasn't concerned with the walls or Titans, just like most people in the town they lived in the walls seemed indestructible and he was living a comfortable like. What was there to be concerned with?

Then Armin had shown him what there was to be concerned with, even if it took Eren a minute to believe him. It didn't take long for Armin, full of knowledge and ideas, to convince Eren that there was more to life than going through the motions, that they were smarter than that, better than that. The world shouldn't belong to monsters and they had to take back what was rightfully theirs. On that day Eren had vowed that he would take back that world for his friend.

Recalling that day made Eren's heart clench and he failed to hide it.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to pry," Marco said.

On graduation day Eren proud of himself for making it into the top ten, that would have to catch the Survey Corps attention when he joined.

'Armin would have risen through the ranks like it was nothing,' Eren thought. 'Are you proud of me for making it Armin?'

Despite the chaos that followed, finding out he was a shifter and everything after, Eren kept pushing forward, even when it felt like he was going to shatter. He was determined to see the ocean and kill the Titans once and for all. For Armin. It was all for him.

That's why when Eren finally found himself at the ocean he wasn't sure what to do from there except stare at it for as long as he could, taking it all in and memorizing it.

Armin and he had been on top of the roof, Eren smiling.

"I want to stand on the wall and see where the world ends," Eren had proclaimed.

"It doesn't end," Armin said. "There's the horizon but it just keeps going like a big ball."

"Really?" Eren's eyes widened. "It does?"

"Uh-huh!" Armin opened his book and pointed to something Eren didn't recognize. "The world is so big and most of it is the ocean! I bet it's beautiful."

"Me too. What did you say it was called at the end?"

"The horizon."

"I want to go to the ocean and see the horizon."

"We will," Armin assured him. "You already promised me."

That night he sat down with a pencil and paper and began writing.

'Dear Armin,  
It's been years but I can still see your face every time I close my eyes. It may have been us being childish and just dreaming but I like to think that it was more than that and right now we really would be talking about getting married. Because I did it. I got to the ocean. I just wish you had been here too because it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, even if it is salty. I warned Connie but he still insisted on tasting it for himself.  
I think you would have liked the people I came here with though, it was nice to share it with people, especially since they appreciated it. None of them could ever replace you but it's nice to have someone. We're leaving soon but I wanted to leave something here for you, it felt wrong not to.  
Love,  
Eren.  
P.S. Did you know the ocean is the same color as your eyes? You were right, it's beautiful.'


End file.
